Vadakkumnathan is a gutsy and gritty endeavour from debutant scriptwriter and lyrist Girish Puthencherry and director Shajoon Kariyal. It is Mohanlal’s third film this year where he tries to cater to the taste of the family audience by making a sensible film.

In the age of shallow and fraudulent mass masala and larger-than-life heroes, Mohanlal had the guts to be a part of an aesthetically well-made film, with outstanding music that haunts you even after you leave the hall. Hats off to late Raveendran who has given some great songs plus the lead actors who have given life-like performances.

The film opens with a mother and son (Kaviyoor Ponnamma and Biju Menon) coming to Hardwar to perform last rites of her elder son who had run away from home and is believed to have died. But the mother sees her long lost son on the banks of River Ganga and takes him back to the family. He is Bharath Pisharody (Mohanlal) a brilliant Sanskrit professor who is respected and loved by everyone including his cousin and lover Meera (Padmapriya). But on his day of marriage he runs away leaving behind a heart-broken Meera and her father (Murali).

Now Pisharody is different man and his family and friends believes that he is on drugs. But actually, the man is mentally disturbed as he suffers from deep depression. Soon his brother discover papers relating to his treatment for mental illness from his locked suitcase. Now everyone starts seeing him in a different way, which leads to the final twist. How Meera helps him come out of this difficult situation in life forms the rest of the gripping tale.

A thoroughly life-like performance from Mohanlal lifts the film to great heights. As the brilliant professor Bharath Pisharody, his body language, mannerisms, innocent and shy smile during the romantic interludes and his blank look at times of mental imbalance are a delight to watch. Padmapriya as his devoted lover has an author-backed role and she comes up with an insightful performance that captures the nuances of the character and proves that she is an actress of substance.

Kavya Madhavan as Pisharody’s sister is good while everyone in supporting cast like Murali, Kaviyoor Ponnamma, Babu Namboothiri and others gives their best. The camera of S.Kumar and song picturisation is eye catching. Malayalam cinema will definitely miss late music director Raveendran whose melodies like “ Oru Kili Pattu Moolave…”, “Kalabham…” and “Gange…” makes the film a musical odyssey.

On the down side, the film is a bit too long and editor Hariharaputran could have made it a bit more crisp. Though the basic theme seems to be inspired from Ron Howard’s A Beautiful Mind, Girish Puthencherry who has written the story, screenplay and lyrics need to be congratulated along with director Shajoon Kariyal for Indianising it and coming out with a clean family film.